170 comments:

Here's my standard reminder... don't post the answer or any hints that could lead directly to the answer (e.g. via a chain of thought, or an internet search) before the deadline of Thursday at 3pm ET. If you know the answer, click the link and submit it to NPR, but don't give it away here.

You may provide indirect hints to the answer to show you know it, but make sure they don't give the answer away. You can openly discuss your hints and the answer after the Thursday deadline. Thank you.

My answer’s first word is also homophonic (thankfully fixed the autocorrect feature for that word) for a common English word and for an equally common foreign word. I’m thinking it’s right based on what I see so far.

There's also a simple solution to this puzzle, though there's no homophone involved, the 2 parts are simple synonyms. And the descriptive word can be hyphenated or not. Don't bother Ron, your Cheap Dictionary does it both ways.

Mendo Jim,I meant to reply to your question earlier but got distracted. You know how it is; wild fires and plagues and political unrest and all that bother. I think this is simply an example of why one should not speak when one's mouth is full.

In some order, I recall we were going to get got by bird flu, swine flu, Strontium 90, radiation, MRSA, SARS, AIDS, Ebola, e coli, salmonella, environmental tobacco smoke, and a bunch of other stuff. We'll get got some day; but this one is likely to join the pantheon of also rans by the time Prez Bernie takes the oath of office.

Bernie will probably win the most delegates, but not enough to win the nomination outright. This will mean that the DNC's Corporate SUPER Delegates will block his nomination and we'll end up with Biden... See how it' going HERE.

That is my fear too. The Democratic Party never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity. 2016 all over again. Trump is in the White House because people wanted change, and Biden does not represent change. Wake up Amerika!

i.e. in regards to luck. Mr. Bloomberg today in his interview considers himself very lucky to be fired from his position at Solomon brothers and land in the maintenance department of a new computer division. I just send in my King County absentee voter ballot. I hope you are washing your hands on a regular basis. I used to work at Valley Medical center and I guess they had one case,but not too severe. Guess they were lucky. Not so at Evergreen.Do you remember the 1957 flu that killed over one-million souls? Me either.

Yes, I remember the 1957 flu very well. My father had it and so did I.

I dropped off my ballot last week.

I received a note in the mail an hour ago that my youngest brother died 3 months ago. I am now the last one standing. Do I get a lapel pin?

I try to wash my hands after I shake hands. I never get sick, even with a cold any more. Last time was 13 years ago. I do not believe in luck. We are now at 7 deaths here. I am sure it will get much worse world wide.

I lost my sister last year. She was two years younger. Condolences on your brother.I felt lucky when my draft number popped up as 96. I turned !-A just after graduation in 72." I was able to be a artful dodger. I guess that was fate.My classmate drew a seven. His dad was a doctor who wrote him a script. Seems like half the people at my intake had letters. Medical letters. I also heard -back to Corona- the first responders who went to the place in Kirkland are all in quarantine. That is good about the hand washing. I work in health care and sometimes forget. My son is a fireman. I saw the pict of the long line around Costco at so.center waiting to supply up.

After working successfully all morning on this month's tracks--my small radio gig--and then helping my better half this afternoon with the horses, I was generally feeling capable and accomplished, but I nevertheless still felt leery of this puzzle.

Hm, very interesting.I came up with an answer that I thought was probably not the intended one. Rather than relying on blind faith, I dropped by here...Well, a few people are definitely hinting at my answer, and a few people seem to be hinting at something else but it's quite possible that I'm just not understanding their hints! That happens to me sometimes.

Just about no one wears a skirt while bicycling any more. So why are "women's" bikes still sold, with a frame-weakening lowered or missing top tube? (The high top tube on men's bikes presents a greater threat to the male anatomy, of course.)

"You suggest Amazon women invented trousers. We often think it was George Sand or Marlene Dietrich who first donned men’s wear.

In some of the archaeological excavations, some articles clothing have survived. The female skeletons are often wearing trousers and tunics and boots, like the male skeletons. In the vase paintings, most Amazons are wearing these wildly coloured pants or trousers. Warrior queens of eastern lands invented trousers so they could take part in the same activities as men. Greeks wear rectangles of clothing pinned together, like a toga. Many ancient cultures wore toga-like dress but they are not horse riding people. If you ride horses you need something to keep you from chafing. Trousers were invented by people who domesticated horses."

Jan: around here I see more than a few women wearing skirts while biking. This is during commute times, not recreational biking. I haven't done a count, so there is no consensus, or prosensus. Biking relatively flat city streets at modest speeds hasn't over-stressed the frames yet.

From what i remember of Tarzan -Jane never wore pants. Always some kind of a leotrard thing -And if you remember Raquel Welch in 100,000 million B.C. some kind of a fur coat. I think that was one of the first apparrel items. And what tribes in New Guinea do you know where the ladies wear pants? It is much too hot for this northern invention.

I will now tell you my pant story. I was born at the tail end of WWII and the eldest of 3 male sons. My mother was a clothes horse of the first order. She would purchase several clothing items to bring home and try on to see what worked and return those she did not feel worked. She was always asking me for my opinion, which she knew would be honest, but if I told her an item did not suit her she would pout. I would tell her that if she did not want my opinion then she should not ask for it.

One of my earliest memories goes back to when I was no more than 4 or 5. I was still the only child. My father was sitting beside the fireplace reading while my mother was doing the runway scene in the hallway before her audience of one, namely me. When she came out of their bedroom dressed in a dark pair of straight length trousers like those Marlene Dietrich wore I threw a tantrum fit of the first magnitude. She was obviously excited about her potential purchase, but I was far more appalled at this gender bender display of my otherwise feminine mother.

I put up such a storm of denouncement that I even surprised myself. In fact I was amazed that my father, who was sitting so near by did not even look up from his reading, nor did he tell me to shut the fuck up and behave.

My mother kept on trying to obtain my approval, but it only increased my tirade, which also increased my confusion as to my father's silence. Eventually my mother receded into their bedroom and returned looking as the woman I both knew and expected. I had won.

It was years later when I eventually understood that it was not I who had won, but my father. He did not want another confrontation with my mother, but did not want her to upset the apple cart either. Therefore he was delighted that I was acting as his advocate in his disdain of her sartorial faux pax. Patriarchy had won again.

Corona may be the virus for today, but we shouldn't beat around the Busch. It will run its Coors and soon will be in the Pabst. To appeal to their Bass the fools in Washington claim the press Foster's fear, Budweiser people will get us through. If your arm is swollen from vaccinations, your Heineken take additional shots.

About an hour ago, I was starting to watch "Hardball" with Chris Matthews and in the first minute he announced that it would be his last show. They went to a commercial break and he never returned.I guess it was a forced retirement because of some recent poor behaviour. Still don't know many details of whatever it was.

I've never seen Hardball, and only watched cable news a very few times in my life. Matthews was local to the Bay Area 20+ years ago, didn't care for his politics, never liked his over the top style (John McLaughlin was more entertaining) so good riddance.

I didn't like his style when he first started up "Hardball" but over the years I started watching him more and more. He was one of the few voices who spoke out against the current wave of the far right drivel.He dug his own grave with his recent behavior, though.

I live in a designated national and state historic district in St. Louis. My house was built in the 1800s and has 11’+ ceilings. It’s nice and gives a real sense of spaciousness but the downside is I have to get a ladder out just to change a light bulb or smoke-alarm battery.

Those who may seek to solve more puzzles (after solving this NPR offering) may want to mosey on over to Puzzleria! (see Blaine's PUZZLE LINKS). This week we feature a sly puzzle by skydiveboy titled "Pet a hot dog, burn your hand!" It's tasty as a sandwich slathered with Thousand Island dressing!

It's interesting, Unknown, that you hide behind an even more anonymous name than I do. I don't care if you're "Unknown", but you are totally out of line with your language. It's about time this country adopted a more civil attitude. If you have to use gutter language...I'd suggest you go elsewhere.

Thanks, Eco. I have no problem with political disagreements. But without some courtesy how do we ever get to talk to each other and try to heal the craziness that's gone on far too long? Blaine, as your being the founder of this website, don't you have some words about the language that you feel is appropriate?

Blaine tends not to get too involved in the spats among the children - we shouldn't really need supervision. He did delete the post, which is absolutely appropriate.

And SDB, Elizabeth Warren is in a LACK of delegate situation. Too bad, she has good policies and doesn't come across as a cranky old man like Sanders. I had to join the Democrat Party to vote for him, I need to switch back soon!

I don't want to spend all my time moderating comments. Please keep it civil. No language please and no direct personal attacks. I'd rather not have to make an edict banning non-puzzle discussion but I'm getting close. Play nice please so I don't have to go nuclear.

> Think of another hyphenated word that describes certain pants. Add one letter to the first half and change one letter in the second half. The new first half of the word and the new second half are both synonyms. What kind of pants are these?

STONE-WASHED -> STONED, WASTED

I didn't mention that they were synonyms of the answer. I also didn't mention that the Tuesday New York Times crossword this week included 48A: On pot: STONED.

When I first saw your comment I thought you might be referring to Pedal-Pushers. Add a letter to the first word and delete one from the second to get Pedals and Pushes, then replace Pedals with it's homonym Peddles leaving PEDDLES...PUSHES.

There is a third synonym to be found in a hyphenated term related to pants. When you remove the consecutive letters W, A, S, H, and E from STONE-WASHED it leaves STONED. (I wanted to say that when you remove those letters you, “get stoned,” but the double entendre was more than I could bear.)

I wrote, “The first attempt at an answer that rang into my head was a phrase for a particular period’s style of pants. When I eventually got the answer, I realized an association.” “Rang” hints at “bell bottoms,” and since I am sixty-nine years old, yes, I did wear those and, I admit, did get high and wasted.

This puzzle has to be stated appropriately to avoid problems, like a black mark on your record. Only 11 states let you get high legally. In 1979 the punk group Black Flag released the EP record Nervous Breakdown, which included "Wasted". I prefer the Camper Van Beethoven version. Flags are used to mark surveys and other construction site elements; standard can be synonymous with both flag and (bench) mark.

You might not know the answer when you get there. If you lived in the '60's you don't remember them.

<<< See new profile photo for a high and wasted church in Denver, opened April 20th (of course), 2017.

Amazon >>> Who invented trousers?

According to Adrienne Mayor's book, The Amazons, "According to the Greeks, it was powerful barbarian women. . .More than a thousand Amazons are depicted on Greek vase paintings, and most of the warrior women are clad in tunics and trousers or leggings, like those worn by their fellow Scythians. . .

But perhaps even more worrying was the fact that barbarian males and females often wore exactly the same costume: hat, tunic, belt, boots, and trousers. . .

Next, the belief that women had invented the barbarian ensemble of tunic and trousers made the outfit unsuitable for "real" (Greek) men...Trousers were seen as feminine attire...

Finally, for Greek men the most anxiety-producing feature of trousers was probably the garment's androgynous nature..."

Mayor's research is corroborated by the presence of numerous female skeletons clad in trousers.

Fascinating book. And, no, the Amazons did not cut off one breast to be better at archery. Amazons were real; far more interesting to me than the current amazon (Bezos) feature that pops up on every darn DuckDuckGo or google search.

Earlier this week I said, “I live in a designated national and state historic district in St. Louis. My house was built in the 1800s and has 11’ ceilings. It’s nice and gives a real sense of spaciousness but the downside is I have to get a ladder out just to change a light bulb or smoke-alarm battery.” You might say it’s a high ceiling.

My answer’s first word is also homophonic (thankfully fixed the autocorrect feature for that word) for a common English word and for an equally common foreign word. I’m thinking it’s right based on what I see so far.

Homofunia, a story and puzzle of a Woman of Words. The blanks in each sentence are homophones, each spelled differently, and consisting of 2 words when a (2) is shown.

There are at least 4 homophones in each sentence, and as this is a lot harder to do than you think, any criticisms of pronunciation latitudes taken will be duly ignored.

During her investigation the aspiring biology student lost __ of a particular -__, and didn't __ that mistake on her web __. What to do? Her father, who saw education and grades as __, was __ in charge of her finances, and a __ report card with bad grades was something on the __ (2) could not tolerate.

As the morning ___ sat on her bottle of ___, she pondered what she would __ about the money that was ___. She could __ her father, or could run away and become a ship's __, but not knowing the __ choice, she decided to try a traditional __. She spent her last few ___ on some herbal ___ to ___, hoping this would help her make ___. She never wanted to be someone who __ herself in some __ office; she wanted to stay away from the __ of people, and hoped she could __ her money for better opportunities.

She decided that before he ___ her report card with all ___, she would ___ the opportunity travel the ___. __ she fled, the fresh __ made her worry she would ___ ___ and never claim her place as ___. Thinking __ the time lost, __ perhaps after pulling on the __ too many times, she realized her place was investigating the __ that is found in the earth.

The fall from grace didn't __ her enthusiasm, and she (with her trusty __), climbed many a __ to __ at geology. This was a __ path, but with her dog __, she was able to navigate the __ (2) led her through, with help from the __ (2) dropped along the way.

She __ through the English countryside, and would ___ her hammer through many a ___; but afterwards her arms raw and __ from the shattered rocks. Soon her life __ took her to investigating rock __, which while __ work at least allows her to enjoy a __ at the end of the day.

She now ___ on rocks, and ___ that her work on ___ will earn her great ___.

This week's challenge: This week's challenge is something different. It comes from Joseph Young of St. Cloud, Minn. It involves Pi Day, which is this coming Saturday, March 14 — commonly written as 3/14. That's been designated Pi Day because 3-1-4 are the first three digits of pi. Well, the letters of "Pi Day" also have a curious mathematical significance. What is it?